


Back to the Atlas

by Atlas_M_33



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Introspection, M/M, Post-season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 09:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15704586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atlas_M_33/pseuds/Atlas_M_33
Summary: They need to get back to the Atlas.(This feels like falling in love.)





	Back to the Atlas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lasersheith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasersheith/gifts).



> This is for my awesome friend lasersheith who filled a prompt for me a while back and made me super emotional with how amazing it was!
> 
> This was beta-d by the amazing Snowbirde on Tumblr without whom this would be an incomprehensible mess of poorly placed commas and attempted repetition.
> 
> Thank you so much to both of you!

They need to get back to Atlas, preferably soon, before people start suspecting something. If it were Keith and Krolia missing no one would be at all suspicious because the two have a tendency to wander off together, exploring the place that used to be their home. But with it being Keith and Shiro, people might ask questions. Especially the higher ups. Especially taking into account how Krolia will, without a doubt, try to cover for them. It’s something they learned over the course of months of traveling in close quarters; that with anything less significant than her son’s life on the line Krolia is an even worse liar than Hunk. Shiro had worried at first, thought it too much to ask, for her to keep this secret for them. In the end, though, she’d guessed, and after a lifetime of not having her around, Keith couldn’t bring himself to lie to his mother. 

 

They need to get back to the Atlas, because they have a war they need to fight and a mission they need to prep for that leaves in two hours, as soon as refueling finishes and the final crew checks are complete. One last night of freedom, time to explore and retrace and remember, was all they had. One last night to find themselves tucked away in the privacy of Keith’s shack, listening to the wind whistling in the canyons and the coyotes crying out among the sand. One last night to spend doing all the things that they won’t be able to get away with when they’re leading a war campaign as the Black Paladin of Voltron and Earth’s darling, the starlit Captain.    
  


They need to get back to the Atlas, because the sun is coming up and they have nowhere else to go but back to their jobs, back to their stations, and back to their duty to the universe that bore them. There isn’t any more time for Shiro to stay locked away in this shack with Keith and dig up his courage from where it’s buried under years worth of scars and trauma. It’s there somewhere, and he knows exactly where it is when he needs to fight giant evil robots but somehow he can never find it when he wants to give in, pull Keith close with an arm around his waist and tell him just how much of his heart he’s ready to give away if it means he won’t be left alone. 

 

They need to get back to the Atlas, but Keith is grinning at him, holding his arms wide and laughing, gray officer jacket fluttering around his slender frame as he dodges Shiro’s attempts to reclaim it. Every grab he makes is impeded by the fact that his jacket isn’t nearly as loose on Keith as it used to be, and every flex of the muscles in his shoulders forces a little more air from Shiro’s lungs. Keith dances back another step, swirling out of reach of Shiro’s flesh arm even as the prosthetic sneaks up behind him, settling between his shoulder blades and halting his motion long enough for Shiro to wind fingers made of blood and bone into the collar of his stolen uniform. Keith’s eyes sparkle, and to him this is probably still a joke. But to Shiro, whose jacket now carries the scent of desert ozone and dust on the wind? Who is going to spend all day standing at the helm with the smell of Keith’s skin drifting off his collar? It really isn’t.   
  


They need to get back to the Atlas, but now Keith is close enough that Shiro can reel him in the rest of the way, one hand on the small of his back and the other curled in the long hair at the back of his neck, thumb tracing constellations into the skin. It only takes two barely there steps backwards for Shiro’s knees to collide with the edge of the sofa and send them both tumbling down onto it, Keith settling on his stomach between Shiro’s thighs and letting his chin rest in the center of his sternum. His smile is soft and sincere, the most beautiful thing Shiro’s ever seen even after years of exploring the assorted corners of galaxies most humans have never even glimpsed. 

 

They need to get back to the Atlas, but Keith’s only move is to raise himself up to his elbows, closing the space between them delicately, resting his forehead against Shiro’s for the space of two heartbeats before he’s pulling him in and kissing him, slow and sweet like they have all the time in the universe. They need to get back to the Atlas, but all Shiro has the strength to do is close his eyes and lean in. 

 

Something warm and solid settles in is heart and, vaguely, he thinks that this feels deeper than falling in love.

 

That this feels like forever. 


End file.
